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Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 7:03am

Artifacts

Despite Gemenon's fundamentalist climate, the city of Delphi on Caprica was apparently of a mind to store an important religious artifact, the Arrow of Apollo, in a museum, rather than a devotional institution (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

Ancient temples may be also be the repository of special artifacts such as the Eye of Jupiter, believed to be stored inside the legendary Temple of Five ("Rapture", "The Eye of Jupiter").

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 7:03am

One main theme of the reimagined version of Battlestar Galactica is the cycle of time.  "All of this has happened before and will happen again."

The Cycle of Time

"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."^[9]

According to Gaius Baltar, this line from the Pythian prophecy is very well known (The Hand of God). Laura Roslin later expands on it, reminding Kara Thrace,

"If you believe in the gods, then you believe in the cycle of time that we are all playing our parts in a story that is told again, and again, and again throughout eternity" (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I).

Various events throughout the series have led some characters to believe that they are playing out another turn of this cycle^[10]. (see Sacred Scrolls for more detailed analysis).

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 6:59am

Idols

At the end of the episode "Flesh and Bone", Kara Thrace, a devotee of Artemis and Aphrodite (as stated by Leoben Conoy in the same episode), prays to them on Conoy's behalf using figurines that bear a similarity to classic representations of Artemis and Athena. Artemis is depicted with her bow and arrow, and Athena with her helmet of war.

When visting the oracle Yolanda Brenn, Thrace receives a figurine of the goddess Aurora as a gift (Maelstrom).

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 6:56am

The Book of the Word (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I).

The Book of the Word is apparently the central tome of scripture, which tells of the exodus of humanity from Kobol after it is left in ruins from a series of ecological disasters.^[7]

The Colonials continue the architectural concepts from Kobol, eons later. On the colony of Caprica, some buildings of the city are in the shape of pyramids, such as the ones seen behind Serina as she reports on the anticipated peace conference events.

Some colonists from Gemoni are members of the Otori Sect.

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 6:55am

 

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 6:49am

Please forgive this  bit of pasting links, (this time) but the information is much too long to copy out here, even in chunks.  I'm just posting this because this is the "official" say so on the religious aspects of Battlestar Galactica. I will also try to add pictures and summaries later on.  Looking at these gives a good source of refference when comparing and combining the religions of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, as well as the monotheistic religions of the Bible and the Middle-East, and even Mormanism with the religous themes of Battlestar Galactica.  One thing that is not mentioned here directly is the geometry associated with religioun and shown in the shows.  If you look at the base stars in the re-imagined series, they are really just stylized Stars of David or Stars of Remphan.  In the original series of Battlestar Galactica, the base stars resemble pentagrams in circles, and their main symbol is pentagons, which are the inside of pentagrams. 

This is a good summary of the religion practiced in the Twelve Colonies in the original series of Battlestar Galactica:

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_(TOS)

This explains the religion practiced by the twelve colonies in theRe-Imagined series of Battlestar Galactica:

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_(RDM)

In a nut shell this is the religion of the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica:

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Cylon_Religion

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 13, 2012 at 6:35am

This is a video interview with Ron Moore where he discusses the religious aspects of Battlestar Galactica:

Ron Moore On Religion In Battlestar Galactica:

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9op6PC03LRA

(He starts talking about religious aspects around 3:40)

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w-9NglSNG0&playnext=1&list=...    

Comment by Shawn O'Donnell on August 13, 2012 at 1:08am

Interesting John that you should mention Tammuz and Ishtar, again relevent to the theme of mythology and which is in turn relevent to Battlestar Galactica...

 

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 12, 2012 at 10:45pm

There is not nearly enough room for me to include the entire myth of Tammuz and Ishtar, but it is the most commonly shared myth of the Middle-eastern cultures including the Egyptians.  Aspects of it flow over into the ancient Greek and European religions as well.  Even today many of our religious traditions that have been Christianized such as the Christmas Tree/Tammuz Tree, Hot Cross Buns, and countless rituals really date back to this myth. Any Battlestar Galactica mythology will necessarily include some aspects of this story, as it ties in Greek, Egyptian, and pre-Columbian American religions.  This really is a good read for any interested: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/mba/mba11.htm

Comment by John David "Buzzsaw" Feagin on August 12, 2012 at 10:31pm

Battlestar Galactica encorporates much ancient mythology.  Battlestar Galactica especially traces much back to pyramids.  There is the card game, The re-imagined docking bays are pyramidal in shape.  The original series started out mentioning the pyramid building cultures.  In the real world, there are many fascinating similarities that tie the pyramids of these various cultures together.  There are coincidences that seem to be much too much to be coincidence.  There have been various programs on television that explain many of these similarities. Ancient Aliens was one of the most recent...and fits PERFECTLY with the Battlestar Galactica mythology.  Off of the top of my head, I will give a few examples.  The Giza pyramid and those surrounding it are positioned exactly as is Orion's Belt.  The pyramids at one Mesoamerican complex are also set out in the same way.  The main pyramid at Giza has nearly the exact same size as the Mesoamerican equivalent, and is EXACTLY twice as high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan

With ALL of these sites, mathematics and especially geometry seem to be very important.  The perfection of their measurements and possible hidden messages of their geometry remain a mystery of much speculation.

Battlestar Galactica also made much use of the Greek culture.  I remember reading that in the original series of Battlestar Galactica, their military system was set up in the same way as the Greek military system rather than present Western military structures.  Many of the names of the planets, ships, people, you name it were Greek.  In the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica, we see Starbuck worshiping an idol representing Artemis, which is also Diana of the Romans. In fact, the Romans basically just copied the Greek gods and Romanized their names.  

Many cultures in the Middleeast shared the same gods but called them different names.  For example, Bel and Ba'al were the same in different languages.  Ashtarte, Ashtaroth, Ishtar, and Easter were the same female god.  Nearly every culture on Earth has a flood story, like Noah's Ark and the Epoch of Gilgamesh.  Many of the religions of the Middleeast share the story of Osiris and Nimrod.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiramis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammuz_(deity)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/mba/mba11.htm

Writers like Tom Horn and Steve Quayle have tone great work on the Nephalim, the gods of the Sumerians.  Again, this can go well with the mythological basis of Battlestar Galactica. 

Most all of the ancient cultures celebrated key times of the year...especially the Summer and Winter Solstices.  Many of the religious celebrations and stories were nearly identical, with only the names being changed according to local dialects and languages.  Many of the great stone structures such and the pyramids around the world as well as Stonehenge were aligned with the stars to show such key times and seasons each year.

We are just starting out with this, but I hope this is of interest to some.  When I have time, I will try to find more useful information to share. This hardly begins to scratch the surface, depending on what anybody in the Battlestar Galactica Fan Club are most interested in.

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